Uh-oh crickets

OK.

Here's the situation. I live on the top floor of a 3 story apartment building. Today, the girl who lives under me sent me an email that said:

''Nic this is gonna sound like a weird question, but do you have crickets in your apartment? I think i'm going to call the landlord because i've killed about 10 crickets in the last 3 weeks'' Needless to say i went down there and talked her out of calling the landlord (im not supposed to have animals here).

Lately, Ive been putting my crickets where my washer and dryer are and im assuming they went down through the dryer pipes....When I came back up,I checked if they could escape from their cricket tank thingy, and sure enough, the small ones can. I put the whole thing in a pillowcase now so that problem should be solved.

Anyways, She's not mad or anything, and i told her I'd be extra careful.

I am left with only one worry - how fast do those things breed? is it possible that I just created an infestation, that they are going to reproduce and that we are going to need an exterminator? because that would SUCK!!!!

Anyways, please let me know guys, I'm a little worried :/

thanks!

Its a cricket not a roach..

I have been buying crickets for close for 10 years now and pretty much everytime I open the cricket container I manage to lose a couple. I always find crickets loose in the house never had an infestation or even found baby crickets around the house. So I don't think you have to worry about that just worry about the escapee numbers down. So you don't get into trouble with the other tenants and landlord. What are you using to store your crickets?

Perfect - thanks alot guys!

From now on keep them in a nice tall rubbermaid box with some air holes and 2 inches of vaseline smeared on the wall on the inside at the top, should prevent excapes

The-Scorp-Whisperer wrote:

From now on keep them in a nice tall rubbermaid box with some air holes and 2 inches of vaseline smeared on the wall on the inside at the top, should prevent excapes

The vaseline thing is a good plan - thanks!

Taller is better, and vaseline won't help with crickets (they can't climb sheer surfaces).

No one should worry about an infestation because they require soil to lay their eggs in . . . but if you want to cut down on escapees getting into your neighbor's apartment, release some house spiders around your place. We have routinely found very fat ones with dead crickets in their webs.

Well years ago I had a horned lizard I kept crickets in a small cage needless to say some got out and bred. My moms house had feral crickets for about 2 years till they started using home defense. I recommend that you get those buggers out of the wash room and spray all the edges and corners. it should solve the problem. As for the small escapees you can either buy a taller tank for them or line the lid of yours with window screen.